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I wound up making some changes to my reading list, but I definitely had an enjoyable Halloween. I blogged about it here. I've just noticed that a couple of the stories I read are included in the Halloween anthology Spiff mentioned above.

I agree with your thoughts on the weaknesses of Lovecraft's negative descriptors. In the early 80s, someone published a set of his complete works in paperback and I made the mistake of reading it all straight through; I was burned out for years. Luckily, I was able to re-ignite an appreciation for him in the last ten years or so.

Lucky break today in the world of movies. Fearnet put up a movie called The Zombies of Mora Tau from 1957. Allison Hayes is in it. I'd never seen it before, but it has old-school zombies (not exactly Voodoo, but close enough). It was very good. Worth watching, or picking up if it's on DVD.

Oh, yeah, Island of Lost Souls! I got it about two weeks ago. I had very high hopes for that one and they were exceeded. Everything about that movie was fantastic from the cast to the script to the cinematography-- just amazing.

I also got this set a couple of days ago, because I need to see The Giant Claw. I have most of this week off, so I'll be watching it tomorrow.

If you've never heard of it, prepare to be left dumbstruck.

Incidentally, that DVD set also contains Zombies of Mora Tau, which I saw over Halloweentime and loved.

I can't get into most Horror films. I mean... just why the hell would ghosts do that to innocent people who accidently crossed their territory? They never punished the ones who actually deserve it, they always only annoy those who had nothing to do with it (Poltergeist is one of those sillies).

And then I don't care for slasher, gore and torture porn movies.

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A movie aiming low should not be praised for hitting that target.

Horror spans a huge range of aesthetics, I love older movies from the 30's and 60's and those that cross over horror and the gothic, Victoriana and fantasy settings. I love their feel, aesthetic, visuals, themes and many of the characters. There are things that only really come through in a horror setting.

But I'm not a fan of outright gore either, the only film I love with that kind of theme is Repo! The Genetic Opera, but then I love gothic opera's and musicals in general like Sweeney Todd, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and so on.

Then again I'm someone who wears skull jewellery and black on a near daily basis so my tastes don't reflect, well very many peoples at all.

If all goes well, I'll get out of work early on Friday and see it then.

How was it? The site says the Blu-ray is coming soon, so I'm holding off a bit longer.

It was excellent. They took quite a few liberties with the story, which surprised me-- more liberties than were necessary to translate a Lovecraftian narrative into a visual one. And it doesn't have the feel of a 30s movie to the degree that Cthulhu had of a 20s movie; you'll notice a couple of things that they never would have done in the 30s. But I enjoyed every minute of it. These guys are devoted to Lovecraft and they know what they're doing. The behind-the-scenes features are an inspiration to independent filmmakers. You won't be sorry for getting it.